Developing a Stewardship Standard for Alternative Natural Fibers

As the global demand for fiber-based products continues to rise, many companies are seeking sources that avoid high-conservation value forest regions. Bamboo, kenaf, hemp and other “purpose grown natural fibers” provide viable options for companies seeking alternatives to wood, as well as sustainable livelihoods for rural communities. Moreover, many of these crops have attributes that make them attractive in their own right: they are rapidly renewable, can be cultivated without intensive agrochemical inputs or water use and may prove useful in the restoration of degraded lands.

Just as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification safeguards forests, there is a need to ensure that management of alternative natural fibers is handled responsibly. Companies looking to source these materials are calling for a standard to promote and enforce globally respected environmental and social criteria among producers of alternative natural fibers.

To help achieve this goal, the Rainforest Alliance has embarked on the development of a rigorous global stewardship standard for the management of plants that contain these fibers—crops that can be used to produce a range of goods, including paper, packaging, construction materials and textiles. Our aim is to ensure the responsible management of alternative natural fibers by providing growers and their buyers with a mechanism to evaluate environmental, social and economic performance.

The Process

The Rainforest Alliance initiated a standard-development process in July 2013. As a member of the ISEAL Alliance—the international body that serves as an umbrella for social and environmental accreditation and labeling schemes—the Rainforest Alliance is following ISEAL guidelines for the development of third-party, values-based standard systems. A consensus-based Technical Committee is leading the process and has scheduled two rounds of public consultations to ensure that a broad range of perspectives is incorporated.

The result will be a "generic" alternative natural fiber standard for purpose-grown plants, complemented by additional crop-specific criteria for bamboo. Other crop-specific requirements—e.g., for kenaf, rattan, Miscanthus—will be added based on demand and feasibility.

Public consultation is currently closed. Please check back later for the next draft and consultation period.

The Rainforest Alliance will incorporate the most current and reputable scientific research, expert analysis and the perspectives of stakeholders throughout the entire process.

Relationship to Other Standards and Systems

The development of an independent standard for alternative natural fibers is designed to fill an identified gap in order to ensure that production meets credible third-party social and environmental criteria.

While other credible systems certify some crop-based fibers, such as bamboo and rattan, there are limitations to the geographies and/or the ecosystems in which they operate. These limitations are particularly evident when it comes to bamboo grown as an exotic crop, in an agricultural setting, or otherwise outside of a natural forest ecosystem.

As this process unfolds, the Rainforest Alliance will collaborate with the FSC, the Sustainable Agriculture Network, the Roundtable for Sustainable Biomaterials and other certification systems to explore synergies and opportunities for alignment.

FAQs

As interest in the use of Alternative Natural Fibers (ANFs) increases, producers, buyers and other stakeholders are seeking a mechanism for evaluating the environmental and social impacts associated with the production of these fibers. The development of an ANF stewardship standard responds to this need and offers safeguards to help ensure responsible crop management.

The Rainforest Alliance is particularly attracted to ANFs because they represent a new frontier in sustainability and have the potential to foster ecosystem conservation and sustainable livelihoods. ANFs can serve as alternatives to trees and help to meet the growing demand for wood-based products while also providing landowners with new income streams and reducing the environmental footprint of the wood-products market, particularly in areas of high-conservation value.

For this project, “Alternative Natural Fibers” (ANFs) are defined as purpose-grown plant crops used in the production of a wide range of goods such as paper, packaging, construction materials and textiles. Examples of ANFs include bamboo, kenaf, hemp and Miscanthus.

Animal and tree-based fibers are not included in this standard, nor is agricultural waste, largely because these resources are already covered by existing credible certification systems.

While some ANFs, such as bamboo and rattan, may already be eligible for certification under existing standards, these standards currently limit the geography and/or ecosystems in which they can be applied. For example, bamboo may be eligible for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification if it’s grown in a forest context but not in a purely agricultural setting

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The ANF standard aims to fill a perceived gap in the application of third-party stewardship standards for purpose-grown plant crops. Our intent is to ensure that the management of these crops meets a level of rigor comparable to what is offered by credible certification standards such as those of the FSC and the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN).

In addition, the Rainforest Alliance is committed to close collaboration with the FSC, SAN and others (e.g., RSB, RSPO and Bonsucro) to explore synergies and opportunities for alignment. The first public consultation period (January 6 through March 4, 2014) will help sharpen the scope and application of the ANF standard by considering how it might fit into and complement the broader certification landscape. We heartily encourage your input on this issue.

The goal of this project (target date: January 2015) is an ANF stewardship standard that defines key performance measures for evaluating the management of purpose-grown plant crops. Neither certification to this standard nor on-product labeling or business-to-business marketing will yet be possible at the end of the project period.

Once the standard is complete, the Rainforest Alliance will examine how best to implement it. Issues to be considered include the future management of the standard, accreditation, auditing procedures and market claims.

A balanced and consensus-driven Technical Committee is guiding the ANF standard development process. The committee will recommend a version of the standard to the Rainforest Alliance Executive Team, and the latter is responsible for final approval.

In accordance with ISEAL guidelines for the development of environmental and social standards, two rounds of public stakeholder consultation are also scheduled to ensure that a broad range of perspectives is included in the development process.

The Rainforest Alliance recognizes that there are real concerns about ANFs that go beyond crop management and have to do with how these crops are processed into final products. From the use of effluents and glues to labor conditions, processing practices have the potential to undermine the positive attributes of sustainable crop management if there are no safeguards in place. We believe, however, that any look at processing must come after a discussion on crop management. If, at that stage, we determine that a need exists that is not being covered by other standards, we will aim to address it.

With over 25 years of experience in market-based sustainability standards, the Rainforest Alliance is well-versed in and committed to addressing the barriers that smallholders may face in accessing the standard and markets. One frequent concern for small-scale producers is the level of rigor associated with assessment and documentation procedures; some believe that the myriad of requirements to be audited do not correspond to the risk associated with non-compliance.

That’s why our proposed ANF standard offers a risk-based approach that is rigorous but also accessible to a wide variety of enterprises. Our proposed standard includes:

Pre-evaluation risk screening to determine whether certain enterprises need to be evaluated to those requirements for which they are at low risk of non-compliance (i.e., they are assumed compliant unless there is cause to believe otherwise). Risk factors and thresholds for determining low-risk status will be part of the screening process—through the use of “Applicability Notes” in the standard.

Scaling the rigor of assessments and documents to be commensurate with size and scope of the enterprise.

This ANF standard will not cover evaluation/auditing procedures. These will be developed through a separate process—once a final ANF draft standard has been completed—and will undergo their own public stakeholder consultation. Evaluation/auditing procedures are likely to cover:

The ANF standard aims to set performance requirements that minimize risk and maximize the opportunities associated with sustainable ANF crop management. With support from the Technical Committee and other experts, we’ve identified key issues (Principles and Criteria) and developed requirements (Indicators) to address them. These issues range from legality compliance and sustainable crop management to working conditions and the mitigation of negative environmental and community impacts.

The Rainforest Alliance’s approach to this standard is to limit the requirements to those that are necessary to demonstrate responsible crop management. We do not wish to overburden enterprises or auditors with expectations that could detract from the key issues. We welcome stakeholder input on what these key issues should be.

The emerging field of ANF crop management involves an array of complex environmental, social and economic issues, and a steep learning curve. We are counting on you—the stakeholders most likely to benefit from and be impacted by an ANF standard—to provide us with your expertise so that any standard we develop achieves its intended goals and provides you with value.

We welcome your participation in the standard’s first public stakeholder consultation, which starts on January 6, 2014, and runs through March 6, 2014. Please visit the ANF website (link) to register and download the standard and comment form. If you would like to join the “Consultative Forum” that will provide input on an ongoing basis, you may also do so on the ANF website.

Technical Committee

Kathleen Buckingham, World Resources Institute (WRI)

Gary Dodge, FSC-US

Keila Hand, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

Camille Rebelo, EcoPlanet Bamboo

Jonathan M. Scherch, Resource Fiber LLC

Peg Stern, Consultant

Rick Underhil, Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Rainforest Alliance Project Team

Richard Donovan and Walter Smith, Project Supervision

Karen Steer, Consultant, Project Manager

Receive Updates and Opportunities to Participate

The ANF Standard Consultative Forum provides a mechanism for interested stakeholders to receive updates and to provide ongoing, direct and meaningful input into the standard development process.